It will be a real challenge to follow Misbah-ul-Haq, says Sarfraz Ahmed

It will be a real challenge to follow Misbah-ul-Haq, says Sarfraz Ahmed

"Misbah bhai did so well for so long and he really built the side up, a side that had some great success and was very stable. So it will be a real challenge to follow on from that. And Tests anyway are not easy," said Sarfraz Ahmed.

Sarfraz Ahmed admitted that it would be a challenge to follow on from where former captain Misbah-ul-Haq left as he had built up the side so well. He also said that it would require ‘some serious patience’.

Promising to do his best, Sarfraz said in an interview to ESPNcricinfo, “Misbah bhai did so well for so long and he really built the side up, a side that had some great success and was very stable. So it will be a real challenge to follow on from that. And Tests anyway are not easy. You need some serious patience. I will try and do as best as I can. I’ve had some success with the limited-overs captaincy and hope I can do likewise with the Tests.”

“If you look at the Test side right now, there are only 4 or 5 players settled in the XI,” Sarfraz said. “Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, myself, Yasir Shah and now Amir. In the middle we used to have Misbah and Younis with whom we knew, whatever position we were in, they could get us out of it.

Sarfraz understands that there will be a void without Misbah and Younis Khan in the team. “If you batted first, you knew with them that we could target 400. That gave a sense of comfort. Now we have players coming in, like Babar [Azam]. Asad will move up the order in Tests now. Azhar will be there. These guys are the type of guys I hope, I feel, can take Pakistan along like Misbah and Younis used to,” he said.

“Whoever we get in to the Test side, we’ll try and take them along for the future and build a team around them. We want to give guys a full opportunity so that they if they tour once, we don’t just drop and forget them.”